Education May Cut Dementia Risk

The rate of dementia is slowing down, and a study published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine has cited two reasons for that.

The study finds that people reaching the susceptible age range today generally have better cardiovascular health than the previous generations. Researchers saw a strong decline in vascular dementia , which is most directly linked to cardiovascular problems.

But investigators also discovered that a more educated population was also a factor in the decline in new dementia cases – or at least in helping more people delay onset of dementia for longer.

The team looked at the cognitive status of 5,025 people aged 60 and older beginning in 1977 and found a steady decline of about 20 percent in new dementia cases each decade. And on average, people were older when they were found to have dementia: 80 years old in the 1970s, compared with 85 in the group evaluated 40 years later.

The decline in new dementia cases occurred only with people who had at least a high school diploma. High school graduates were also the only ones whose cardiovascular health, except for obesity and diabetes, improved steadily over the same 40 years.

The study authors wouldn’t speculate that education is beneficial in itself – it could be that less education is an indicator of other factors like poverty and unhealthy lifestyle. Also, the research couldn’t address the question of whether college education would indicate an even sharper decline in dementia cases, due to the small number of college graduates in the study group.

Concussions: It’s Not Just About Football

In news headlines, football and concussions go together like politicians and promises. As they should. There are literally thousands of ex-NFL players filing concussion-related lawsuits against the league. (Even so, more kids still sign up for freshman football than any other sport.)

Head injuries in sports, amateur and professional, are rampant. But for an extreme example – even when compared to the NFL – look no further that what has been called the world’s most dangerous sport: professional wrestling.

Last year, professional wrestlers Vito LoGrasso and Evan Singleton sued World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) over traumatic brain injuries they sustained during their wrestling careers. And this week WWE superstar Daniel Bryan pointed to the many concussions and post-concussion seizures that he had suffered throughout his 16-years of wrestling as his reason to retire.

Medical documents, autopsies, and police records gathered by USA Today revealed that among the 1,000 active wrestlers between 1997 and 2004, at least 65 have already died. And they died young – notably Randy “Macho Man” Savage, at 58, and James “The Ultimate Warrior” Hellwig, at 54.

Bryan acknowledged the mindset of players in team contact sports. Especially for young players the mantra is to “play on.” Playing through pain, toughing it out, walking it off – these are all attitudes that are likely to lead to further, more serious injuries. He hopes his story serves to warn the younger generation about looking out for their own safety when it comes to sports injuries.

Anatomy of a Sneeze

You know to cover up when you sneeze. That’s just good etiquette.

But you might be surprised by the findings of a study published in Experiments in Fluids (yes, that’s a real journal) that shines a light on how the germs you’re unleashing on the world explode from your body.

Researchers discovered that when a person sneezes, the fluid is not dispersed in a uniform mist, as you might imagine. Instead, they found that a “balloon” of fluid emerges from the mouth. This balloon then breaks down into long threads before dispersing as a spray of droplets. They compare the process to “paint that is flung through the air.”

The team used two high-speed monochrome cameras to record more than 100 sneezes of three healthy participants who were placed against a black backdrop. The high-speed imaging allowed researchers to capture around 200 milliseconds of each participant’s sneezes and analyze them frame by frame. (Follow the link below to see a cool picture of a sneeze forming.)

Investigators noted that as soon as fluid leaves a person’s mouth through sneezing, it combines with the simultaneously exhaled air to form a balloon. As this balloon moves through the air, it breaks into thin threads that divide into sprays of different-sized droplets, which either stay in the air or fall to the ground.

The findings were surprising, since the team expected to see droplets coming out fully formed from the respiratory tract. This new information could prove to be an important step in understanding the mechanics of what is termed “violent expirations," and help identify individuals who are most likely to spread illness.